The Fourth Doctor - The Seeds of Doom

[Thascales]

THE SEEDS OF DOOM
by Robert Banks Stewart



Starring Tom Baker and Elisabeth Sladen.

Production Code: 4L

First Transmitted:
1 - 31/01/1976 18:00
2 - 07/02/1976 17:30
3 - 14/02/1976 17:55
4 - 21/02/1976 17:45
5 - 28/02/1976 17:45
6 - 06/03/1976 17:45

'I've heard of flower power, but that's ridiculous!' Robert Banks-Stewart's unfamiliarity with Doctor Who's format leads to a script that is really an Avengers episode in disguise. The Doctor is as violent as he's ever been, engaging in fisticuffs, carrying a gun and describing Sarah as 'Miss Smith, my best friend' (turning Sarah from a flapping ornament into a quasi-Mrs. Peel).

Another gem, and one much befitting from an excellent performance from Tony Beckley as Harrison Chase (the scene in episode five in which Chase communicates with his plants is particularly chilling).

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[Davros]

Ah the neck-snap story. It's a great story that feels like a two-part story, the first part being a shorter prelude. I don't know why, but the scene of the entire house engulfed in tentacles impresses me special effects-wise. I still don't know how they did that.

[Nyki]

I recently rewatched this, and I still loved it as much as ever.  I can see the point of the reference to the Avengers in the OP (for the younger members, the classic TV series, not the superhero collective) but they wouldn't have had alien plants clomping around the countryside.  Actually, the plot's basically a riff on The Quatermass Experiment (like Spearhead From Space is Quatermass II and The Daemons is Quatermass & the Pit) but all three transcend their influences and are brilliant stories in their own right.